A factory model for schools no longer works

The past several decades have seen technology transform industry after industry. Nearly every sector in America has used new technologies to innovate in ways nearly unimaginable a generation before the change.

One sector, however, has remained nearly the same as it was a century ago.

The education system in place in urban school districts around the country was created in the early 1900s to serve a different time with different needs. In 1900, only 17% of all jobs required so-called knowledge workers, whereas over 60% do today.

Back then, the factory-model system that educators adopted created schools that in essence monolithically processed students in batches. By instituting grades and having a teacher focus on just one set of students of the same academic proficiency, the theory went, teachers could teach the same subjects, in the same way and at the same pace to all children in the classroom.

When most students would grow up to work in a factory or an industrial job of some sort, this standardization worked just fine. But now that we ask increasingly more students to master higher order knowledge and skills, this arrangement falls short.

Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole have felt this pressure acutely. Between 2011 and 2012, Wisconsin had the biggest six-month decline in manufacturing jobs in the nation after California. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel special report, the city's pool of college-educated adults ranks among the lowest of the country's 50 biggest cities. To become an average city among the top 50, Milwaukee would need another 36,000 adults with college degrees. Since 1990, it has added fewer than 1,000 a year.

The factory-model education system no longer works. We learn at different paces, have different aptitudes and enter classes with different experiences and background knowledge. Each of us needs a different, customized learning approach to maximize his or her potential. Milwaukee and urban school districts across the nation must embrace innovation to break out of this monolithic education system. Schools must use technology to personalize their learning environments to address the needs of individual students.

For far too long, urban districts have deployed technology by simply cramming it into their existing schools and classrooms as an add-on or small supplement — and spent not insignificant sums in doing so. Milwaukee spends roughly 1% of its operating budget on technology, but it is not clear that those investments have resulted in learning gains. Too many districts have historically mistaken an investment in technology for a thoughtful and strategic focus on innovation.

Instead, the district must use technology, specifically online learning, to customize for students' different learning needs.

Milwaukee has some experience deploying online learning, such as offering advanced courses or extracurricular courses. And the district had historically used online learning well in a handful of partnership or alternative schools to help serve students that had dropped out or were on the verge of doing so.

But to the detriment of its students, the district has begun easing these schools out — from 21 schools down to six.

Milwaukee can learn from places such as Florida and Utah that already have created mechanisms through which to pay online learning providers in part based on student outcomes. For example, in Utah, an online learning provider receives 50% of funds up front for serving students but only receives the other 50% when a student successfully completes a course. This helps align incentives around actual student learning. States such as Wisconsin should move forward with this type of policy.

Urban districts, in the meantime, can themselves enter into performance-based contracts without waiting for the Legislature to act.

Wisconsin also ought to lift its existing seat-time requirements so that district schools that are not chartered as virtual schools can benefit.

Online learning appears to be a classic disruptive innovation, and it has the potential to not just help reform education but to transform it.

Michael B. Horn is co-founder and executive director of education at the Clayton Christensen Institute, a nonprofit think tank. Meg Evans is a program associate of education there. They examined Milwaukee Public Schools as part of a year-long education project sponsored by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.